How much productivity are we losing to the election?

Making Election Day a holiday would surely benefit democracy, but what about the economy? A listener wants to know, so for this Whadda Ya Wanna Know Wednesday, we’re looking at the cost to businesses when Election Day stretches to Election Week and beyond. Plus: questions about jobs data, tax filing in the pandemic and all the money thrown away on Senate races this year.

Here’s a list of everything we talked about today (if you can’t click the links, check out our episode page at makemesmart.org):

“The case for making Election Day an official holiday” from the Marketplace Morning Report

Pew data on Election Day as a holiday

“Election Day likely cost billions in lost productivity” from Marketplace

“GOP retains Senate seats despite record-breaking Democratic fundraising” from Axios

“GOP House candidates overcome fundraising deficits in toss-up races” from Open Secrets

“Working from home? You might owe income tax to two states” from CNN